On The Wrong Side
by Dragomemoirs
Summary: Nero, a devil hunter who was raised by the Order of the Sword. He was entrusted with a mission to hunt the man in red, while on the hunt a fight with a demon goes wrong and Nero is pushed through the Hell Gate. This begins Nero’s journey in Remnant with the wrong people on his side in the begining.
1. Chapter 1

An: Quick note, I have been suffering from writer's block and it is not only affecting me with FanFiction but with school as well. I have had trouble finding the motivation to do the simplest of tasks and I have decided to rewrite my first story in order to ease myself out of it. However, since this is a rewrite I will be changing things up. The pairing will be changed as well and some other key points, this story will be a bit AU considering the Devil may cry universe and I may have to take liberties with the RWBY story since Nero won't really be following cannon or going to Beacon. I love the cannon, but I have read to many regurgitations of the RWBY story with just bits where the new character says something and the response is totally the same, Personally, I have no qualms against that but it just bugs me. If you are going to take the time to write a crossover story with an interesting summery and strong first chapter, but you don't use anything original for the other chapters. I am going to try my best with this, and I am going to post this as a separate entity so people can read the other and see if it is better or worse than this one. Please be kind-ish, I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. Let me know if this is better than the other one or if I should keep going with it. I'm going to try to keep Nero in character as much as possible as well as others but I hope that the story is good all the same.

Minor note: I haven't played DMC 4 for a long time now and some of the events are hazy, but I still have a general gist of the story. I hope people will forgive me for being a little wrong about other things and remember that things will be told differently than the cannon because I'm too lazy to look back and make it the exact same, and if I did this wouldn't be a crossover story.

Ok enough of my dribble, on with the show.

Nero groaned as he walked into the abandoned mining town, the buildings were worn down and falling apart at the seams. Nero barely noticed the giant demon, who was on fire as they walked right by one another.

"That smell," the demon intoned, "I smell the scent of the traitor, Sparda." It sniffed the air and turned to regard Nero. "But all I see is an insect."

"Why'd you go and say that? You're going to hurt my feelings." Nero sighed while stretching his shoulder. He moved his hand to grip Blue Rose, pulling it out of the holster slowly. "I'll have to kill you depending on what you say next."

"Hahaha, you are brave for an insect!" the demon laughed, "what is your name, insect? I'll do you the honor of telling you my name. I am Berial, son of Mundus, conqueror of the flaming Hell!" Berial said with clear pride in his name and title.

"What do you know? I guess demons can be polite, huh." Nero holstered Blue Rose and crossed his arms. "My name is Nero, son of not-your-business." He reached and placed his left hand on Red Queen, he is ambidextrous but he couldn't really use his right arm in public. He flexed his right arm, Devil Bringer, it glowed with a bright blue hue. It did that when he was in the presence of demons, which is useful but he had to hide it under a cast in order to stay in public. He pulled the sword off his back and held it before him.

"Nero, you are brave for a human. I respect your courage and will face you on the battlefield." Berial readjusted his grip on his flaming Zweihander, he gave a few practice swings destroying the buildings around them with one swing.

Nero yawned at his display, he drew Blue Rose in his Right hand while he kept hold of Red Queen in his left. He channeled demonic energy into the gun, infusing the bullets inside with power. He snapped it towards Berial's face, he pulled the trigger blasting the demon in the face with the two power infused bullets.

Berial ran forward on his four legs, swinging his sword. He was slow, but he had reach and power behind his swings. The flames that ran down the blade swept across the area, catching Nero in the blast he was knocked across the field hitting the stone walls that surrounded them. Berial raised his sword, charging it with the flames of Hell. The air around them became hotter and wisps of flame were running across Berial's body.

Nero grunted as he pushed himself off the ground, Berial hit like a truck. Nero scowled and holstered Blue Rose, he drew back his arm and summoned a spectral limb that gripped Berial's face and pulled him closer. Nero slashed at his face with Red Queen, scoring angry orange lines of his blood running down his face. Nero used Devil Bringer to grasp Berial by the face, he used an insane amount of his strength to yank the large demon off the ground and spin him in a circle in the air behind him. He smashed Berial into the ground, Devil Bringer keeping a grip on his face the entire time. Nero brought Red Queen forward and stabbed Berial where his heart was located.

Nero grunted, as he unsummoned the spectral arm. He flicked Red Queen, removing the orange magma-like blood that covered its length. The blood sizzled as it touched the ground, leaving scorch marks in the dirt. "Goddamn demon was a pushover. I thought that I would have a fight on my hands, but," Nero looked at his arm, Devil Bringer, "this thing was really useful in the fight." Nero looked himself over, as he turned away from the demon and faced the Hell Gate that he came from.

Berial rose behind an unsuspecting Nero, who believed the fight was over. Berial readied his sword, preparing to strike Nero from behind. He swung his Zweihander with all his might enough to split an ordinary person in two.

Nero's only warning was Devil Bringer glowing with intense blue light, giving him enough time to spin around and catch the sword in his hand. Devil Bringer grated against the sword it was currently keeping away from his body. Nero shot Berial in the face, causing him to step back in surprise.

"You are no ordinary human," Berial brandished his Zweihander pointing it directly at Nero.

"Don't ask." Nero swung Devil bringer at Berial, punching him directly in the face. Nero pushed forward getting close to the demon, so he couldn't swing his sword at him. Red Queen was glowing, her steel was orange due to the exceed system that was heating the metal up. Nero raked his sword across Berial's face, more orange blood covered Red Queen.

Berial tried to back away from Nero's attacks and let him fall to the ground, but every time Nero would pull himself towards him again with Devil Bringer. There was no escape for the demon.

Berial roared as he pushed Hell Fire outward from his body with tremendous force, it launched Nero toward the Hell Gate. Nero gripped Red Queen in front of him, keeping Devil Bringer behind him.

"You are strong, I know why you smell of the traitor. You are related to Sparda and his brood aren't you!" Berial howled with indignation.

"Why are you asking me?" Nero spat towards the hulking fire demon, "even I don't know the answer to that question."

Nero backed up placing his hand on the Hell Gate, Devil Bringer pulsed with energy as it contacted the Gate. Nero looked at the monolith looking gate, it glowed with a blue light just like his arm.

"You seek to escape like a coward, just like Sparda. You escape to a world, not of your own and gather your strength exactly like that coward!" Berial roared and launched his sword at Nero, it caught him in the abdomen scoring a deep gash that bleeds profusely. Nero fell back into the glowing Monolith, he was absorbed into the Blue Hell Gate.

Once Nero was all the way through the gate the glow died down, leaving Berial alone in the mining village. Berial kneeled down, he was weakened from his fight with Nero. He would have to return back to the flaming hell and recuperate his strength. Berial dragged himself to his gate, the color was changing back to his own. The half-breed affected the Gate incorrectly, meaning he didn't end up going to hell. That didn't matter to Berial all that much, he would find Nero and kill him at another time.

—-WS—-

Nero stumbled backward, tripping over his feet and falling back. He whipped his head around, examining his surroundings. He had fallen through the Hell Gate, while fighting Berial. Nero pushed himself up onto his feet and clutched his abdomen, it wasn't healing properly.

Nero grunted as he focused on the problem at hand. He was in a very dark place, he could see himself due to the light that Devil Bringer gave off. There was still a surface under his feet, but he couldn't make it out. He knelt down and brushed his hand against the surface, it didn't change or reveal any new details of it. It was a smooth surface and the light from his arm didn't reflect off the surface.

"Shit," Nero swore while brushing his hand through his hair, "you've got to be kidding me."

Nero sighed, "Might as well pick a direction and start walking," he muttered to himself.

Nero held Devil Bringer in front of him, it's light seemed dimmer. He narrowed his eyes as he slowly moved his arm around him, it got brighter when pointed in one direction while dimmer in the other.

"I'm playing hot or cold with my arm, fuck my life." He trudged onward in the darkness, following the trail. He pushed his headphones over his ears, "if I'm going to be walking in the dark. I am not doing it in silence and I sure as hell ain't talking to myself."

In what felt like seven minutes of walking in the dark, the Hell Gate was acting as a passageway it was leading him somewhere, he just didn't know where. Nero kept his eyes forward and spotted a light in the distance, it was sky blue. Nero smiled to himself and moved faster towards the light, his journey in the dark was finally reaching its end. He checked his arm one last time, it was still glowing with a strong blue light.

He jogged over to the light while keeping a hand over his wound. In the seven minutes of searching it still hadn't healed, whatever Berial's sword was made of it hurt like hell. The surrounding darkness changed from pure black to gray, the light from up ahead was getting brighter the closer he got.

Nero was seconds away from the light, Devil Bringer outstretched to reach it. The moment it came into contact with his hand, everything turned blue with splotches of white mixed in. Nero felt himself fall when he suddenly realized that he was falling through the sky.

Nero plummeted to the ground fast, he was dropping like a rock. He reached his hand back onto Red Queen's handle and gripped it as tight as he could, he did the same with Blue Rose. He couldn't risk being separated from his weapons in an unknown location that Hell Gate could have spit him out anywhere, maybe Hell itself. Nero felt his stomach churn at the idea of being in Hell, he would be surrounded by the very things he hates. He would not hesitate when it came to killing demons and if he found a "friendly" demon, he would give it a single chance to prove itself not hostile to him, otherwise, it was lights out.

Nero looked down on the incoming ground, there was green everywhere as well as what looked like a city. He knew that he couldn't land in the middle of a city, he had to find somewhere to land. As annoying as the trek back to the town would be, Nero would prefer to keep his arm hidden from view. Nero spotted a group of tents miles away from the city, without a second thought he angled himself in order to hit the ground nearby. He would hit the ground by the tents without a hitch until his wound started to burn him.

The pain was unimaginable, Nero felt as if his skin was boiling and the wind he felt whipping past him didn't help. His insides felt like they were full of pure fire, melting him from the inside out. Nero felt his consciousness fading as he approached the ground.

—-WS—-

Emerald internally groaned as she walked with Mercury through the forest, Cinder ordered them to patrol the area while she made a deal with Adam. Emerald disliked leaving Cinder on her own, but she was strong enough to handle herself. She trusted Cinder, but she couldn't really stand Mercury he was an annoying ass. He could hold his own in a fight, however.

"Sooo, what exactly are we keeping an eye out for in the forest, miles away from the closest town?" Mercury asked, with his hands laced behind his head. "I mean don't get me wrong, but wouldn't we be more useful in the camp? Where we could actually help should something go wrong. The White Fang have their own patrols that deal with the Grimm and other things. So why place us here?"

"It's not our place to question, Cinder. She told us to watch the perimeter, so we're going to watch the perimeter." Emerald said, her voice barely hiding her dislike of him.

"Don't be like that Em, I'm just saying that it feels like we were just sent away. Almost treating us like children that couldn't keep from doing something stupid, so she sent us away to keep from embarrassing her." Mercury-added with a small sigh, "I didn't join Cinder to be treated like a child."

Emerald bristled and was about to tear him a new one for suggesting she was a child when a loud crash caught their attention. They both froze as they processed the possibility of an attack, Emerald pulled her guns out of their sheaths while Mercury fell into his fighting stance. There was silence before the howl of a Grimm cut through, it was soon followed by a very human-like roar. The voice was more animal than human, like a wounded and cornered animal. The very forest came alive with activity, Grimm was honing in on the source of the disturbance.

Emerald looked to Mercury, who nodded in confirmation. They both rushed to the noise with speed being their main concern, the faster they dealt with the problem, the lower the chance of discovery. Emerald would succeed in this job in order to make Cinder proud of her, while Mercury just wanted to fight someone.

While heading to the noise Emerald and Mercury were passed by Beowolves and Ursa, all ignoring them and heading to the source. It wasn't unusual for the Grimm to ignore them, while on their trip with Cinder they haven't been attacked by Grimm at all but they still snarled and growled at them, so them fully ignoring them was strange. Emerald and Mercury slowed down and glanced at one another.

"Whoever this guy is, the Grimm really hate him." Mercury looked unsure of himself for a split second, "not even a normal Huntsman would be able to take on this amount of Grimm. Yet, we can still hear him fighting, meaning that whoever he is, killing Grimm is the easiest thing for him. We can't go in there without a plan." Mercury said with a serious look on his face, he wasn't joking and he certainly wasting going to risk his life. "I suggest we get close enough to observe the action and when he's done with all the Grimm we swoop in and kill him."

"No, we capture him. Cinder would want to know what he knows, it would be better to capture him while he's tired out. It's not like the guy could be a monster," Emerald said, while the roars grew louder and they could hear the combat clearly. There were no gunshots or clanging of metal on claws or armor, it was only the sound of flesh hitting flesh and large thuds that shook the ground. "Ok, I may be wrong but remember I could use my semblance to calm him down. If we don't have any other option we subdue him," Emerald stared at Mercury, until he nodded.

They crept closer to observe the fighting and what they saw surprised them. They saw a white-haired guy killing Grimm with his bare hands. Emerald and Mercury could see the sword that he had strapped to his back, yet he didn't make a move to use it. The guy kept fighting and took multiple hits from the Grimm, he was wounded himself. His clothing, what remained of them, were in tatters he wore a large blue coat with a hoodie underneath that, his jeans were just as tattered. There were cuts in his skin where the Grimm had hit him, but they steamed and healed as he ripped into them. The biggest thing about him was his glowing right arm and the glowing red eyes. The palm and last two digits of each finger glow blue, which is connected to blue streaks that runs along the back of the forearm that is also connected to a vague star-shaped glowing patch on the back of the hand. The back of the hand and the backside of the arm is covered in red hide that leads up to an extended elbow. On the front side of the forearm are navy blue streaks.

An Ursa lunged itself at him, swinging both arms downwards at him. He caught both arms. He roared as he lifted the Ursa into the air and slammed him down. The air around him was covered in .a blue fire, that seemed to bleed from his body. A Beowolf leaped at him from behind, only for it to get caught in the air by a blue spectral figure that appeared from the man. The specter slashed the Beowolf in half and pulled itself back into the man.

The man launched himself back into combat, killing Beowolves and Ursa alike. While he killed the Grimm effectively, they still landed hits on him. They raked bloody lines across his back and chest, his blood flowed down his clothing and on the ground underneath him.

The man leaped onto an Ursa, knocking it onto the ground. He punched his right arm into its chest, his arm grew brighter while the wounds on his body fizzled and hissed. The blue fire that surrounded him grew brighter as he leaped off the Ursa and back into the fray, his body flickered and he was covered in a sort of scaly armor. The armor flickered off of him again, returning back to his normal state.

A spectral arm appeared from nowhere and pulled an Ursa into the air and slammed it back down into a cluster of Beowolves, squishing them into paste. The final Beowolf slashed his back and he snapped around and backhanded it into a tree.

The guy had killed all the Grimm that had attacked him, his breathing was ragged and he was hunched over. He fell to his knees, with his right arm clutching at his heart. He fell face down on the ground, shortly after.

"Well, that was a thing," Mercury said with a whistle, he was impressed with what he saw.

Emerald walked into the clearing and called back to Mercury, "what are you waiting for? We're bringing him to Cinder."

She placed his arm over her shoulder and pulled him up. "Shit, he's heavy!" Emerald yelped as she struggled to lift him up.

"Geez, Em. I thought you were stronger than that." Mercury drawled as he walked over to the other side of the guy and placed his arm over his shoulder. The second he took some of the guy's weight onto himself, he stumbled over on himself, nearly knocking them all over into the floor. "Ugh, God you were right, Em. This guy is really heavy, uggh and we have to make our way back to the camp," Mercury groaned.

"Less complaining, more walking."

"You think this guy's a Faunus?"

"I've never seen a Faunus with any features like him, but what else could he be, Mercury?" Emerald sighed, as she knew that the walk back would be tiresome and not because of the guy she had to carry back.

—WS—-

Emerald and Mercury dragged the unconscious man through the White Fang camp to where Cinder was.

"What are you humans doing to one of our brothers!?" A White Fang member questioned them as they got closer to the main clearing in the camp.

"We found him in the woods fighting against the Grimm, we're taking him to Cinder," Emerald answered with a tense smile on her face.

"You two better not have brought harm upon him, otherwise Adam will separate your heads from your body." The grunt threatened with a sneer, "filthy humans," he muttered as he walked away from them. Emerald stared after him, she was tempted to use her semblance to show him something horrifying. It would be an act of petty revenge, but damn was it tempting.

"Would you look at that we're gaining a following," Mercury whispered to her, Emerald looked around and saw that he was correct. The surrounding White Fang were following them, they stared at them with suspicion and distrust. Cinder had only worked out the deal with Adam three weeks ago, they were still suspicious of their benefactors.

"What kind of Faunus is he?" "What are those humans doing?" "We should get rid of them!" "I knew they were nothing but trouble." The voices of the White Fang members mixed together, all of them ranging from suspicious to angry.

Emerald and Mercury ignored them and kept walking towards the main tent, where Adam and Cinder were planning how to procure more dust. The White Fang only got more vocal as they moved towards the tent.

"Why is there so much noise out here?" Adam asked as he emerged from the tent, his weapon drawn and ready for use. His head turned as he looked for what was causing the disturbance, his head locked onto Emerald and Mercury. "What have you humans done?" Adam asked, his weapon moving to point at them and his face twisted with a snarl as he regarded the two humans. "You've not only brought someone into our camp but attacked him first without figuring anything out. What do you two have to say for yourselves?"

"Nothing, we just found the guy fighting Grimm in the forest. He could be a huntsman or a huntsman-in-training, so we decided to bring him to Cinder. She can decide what to do with him, Cinder would want to know the facts before she decides to do anything." Mercury informed the Faunus with a straight face, which Emerald mimicked easily.

Adam considered the two of them for a moment, his snarl changed into a neutral frown. "Fine, take him to Cinder," Adam lowered his weapon, "however, I want to speak to him once he wakes up. I will not allow a fellow Faunus to die in my camp for any reason." Adam jerked his head towards the tent and stepped aside, allowing them to enter while he moved to calm his fellow White Fang members. Emerald and Mercury moved inside, quickly carrying the man over to a couch Adam had inside the tent. Cinder wasn't in the Tent, so they would have to take care of the guy and wait for her to get back. Mercury moved back and let Emerald handle setting him down on her own, she struggled under the sudden increase of weight but she managed to place him on the couch without throwing him down onto it. Mercury pulled the sword from his back while Emerald patted him down searching for other weapons. She found a large, heavily-modified revolver in a sheath that was hidden underneath his coat. They placed his weapons on the farthest corner of the room, not wanting him to wake up and start swinging.

"What do we do about his arm?" Mercury asked crossing his arms and falling back into a chair. "It's obvious that he can fight with that, even if we take his weapons he could rip us apart with his bare hands."

"Well let's hope that he doesn't start attacking us out of nowhere, we'll just have to play nice. He shouldn't attack us without a reason."

"Whatever, lets hope Cinder as a better idea on what to do with him." Mercury shrugged, not really caring either way. "What kind of Faunus do you think he is?"

Emerald groaned, "he may be some type of reptile Faunus, his arm is covered in a red scaly hide and the cracks show blue glowing flesh underneath it." Emerald sighed as she placed a hand over her forehead. "It's not like I'm an expert in Faunus biology, he could be a Salamander Faunus or a Chameleon. I wouldn't be able to tell the fucking difference."

"Eh, fair point."

Emerald couldn't wait for Cinder to get back, so she wouldn't have to babysit Mercury.

—WS—-

AN: OK, that's it. I hope people enjoy this rewrite of my first story. I am personally pleased by it and hopefully, any errors that are in this are corrected before I post it. Review and leave your thoughts on this so far, can't wait to write more.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I'm back with another chapter finally. I have been dealing with life stuff and wishing for the sweet embrace of death, but I wanted to keep writing. I received an amazing review and that really inspired me, I went back and redid this entire chapter, due to me wanted to use Nero's personality. Quick note, I did change some history for Nero and I know that people will want too know what the hell's going on but I ask that you trust me. All will be reveled eventually, just know that if somethings weird that I changed something. Quick question, who knows about the Batman who laughs? It is hilariously horrifying and if you like Batman it is one of the few dark comics I like. Dark Nights: the Batman who laughs (2017) issue.**

**Lolrus555: Thank you for the feedback and I'm glad that you think I did a good job with the characterization of Nero. I hope that what I do for this Chapter is approved of and that you enjoy it.**

**Thedarkness1996: thanks and I hope that you keep enjoying it.**

**(Edit: I got really preoccupied playing DMC 5, which was amazing and I love how they portrayed the characters. I'm not going to go in to much detail since I don't want to spoil things for others. Let me know what everyone thinks at the end, Please.**

—-WS—-

Nero opened his eyes and he was greeted by the roof of a large tent. He frowned as he pushed himself into a seated position, the tent was empty. There was a large table in the room with a map, some chairs surrounded it, there was a cabinet in the corner filled with books with a sculpture of a weird wolf-like creature sitting on top.

"Where the fuck. . ." Nero trailed off as he felt the missing weight of his weapons. He immediately looked around the room again, hoping that it was sitting in a corner or something. He looked over his appearance, his clothes were torn up bad, the entire right sleeve was gone showing Devil Bringer to the world. "Shit, the people who found me definitely saw this. I need to find my stuff."

Nero raised himself of the couch that he was sitting on. He walked towards the table and gazed down at the map.

"The map of Remnant, the major kingdoms Vale, Mistral, Atlas and Vacuo." Nero looked over the map, it had marks in all of the continents. There were numerous ones in Vale and Mistral, Atlas was less than none, more red flags than marks, Vacuo had nothing with a side note saying, "who gives a shit in Vacuo." Nero smirked, he liked whoever wrote this sense of humor.

"Huh, a map of operations, shit where the fuck did I wake up!" He sighed, while grasping his face with his hand. He knew that this wasn't his home, the map didn't look fake and they were too detailed. "Fucking demons," Nero sighed, chalking this up to demon bullshit. He walked over to the tent flap and took a quick peek outside the tent.

He was in a camp, there were sentries placed around and patrolling the site. He couldn't quite make them out in the dark, while the moon light helped they were obscured by other tents. He wouldn't be able to sneak out, since stealth wasn't really his style. Nero sighed and looked toward the sky, he saw the moon. He backed away from the exit, his face blank as he walked back over the couch.

Nero placed his head in his hand and groaned, "fucking demons, blowing up the moon. Where the fuck am I, shit."

Any doubts that Nero had about this being a joke was swept away. How the hell does someone blow up the moon, Nero thought. Welp, looks like I'm in for a wait. Nero leaned back into the couch, whoever owned this tent would be back eventually. This was obviously the leader's tent and it was empty, meaning the leader would be back soon.

Nero reached into his jacked pocket, praying silently. He grasped a familiar object and pulled them out with a smile on his face. His headphones were safe and sound, they looked in working order.

"Fuck, yes! No, waiting in silence for me." He reached for his other pocket, his smile still present until he realized that the other pocket was missing. That entire piece of his jacket gone, with a groan he placed his headphones beside him.

"I fucking hate my life." Nero settled back into the couch for the wait.

—-WS—-

"Johnson, report. What's the condition of the forest, any other disturbances." Adam asked, while staring into the darkness of the woods. Thanks to his Faunus heritage he could see perfectly in the dark, there wasn't any movement that he could see.

"The forest is. . . in a uproar. The Grimm are super active, they advance straight towards us, even with these humans so called 'support.' They know where we are and the sentries are holding them off easily, due to the Grimm throwing themselves recklessly at the camp. There have been no other sightings of people in the forest, I'm glad that the Faunus that was brought in was OK." Johnson said, his smile still visible underneath his mask, his dog ears drooping down the side of his head. "Overall, everything is going well, sir."

Adam smiled at him, pleased that his troops were capable of defeating Grimm. He could count on them to do their jobs.

"Speaking of our guest, have those humans given up on seeing him?" Johnson asked, with a snarl.

"No, they keep asking and it's seriously starting to grate my nerves. They've been trying to force themselves through me, saying they have questions for him." Adam said with a smile starting to form on his face, "they forget one major thing, though."

"And what would that be?" Johnson asked whiled tilting his head to the side, ears raised up.

Adam flashed a vicious smile, "I could easily kill them all and I am offering them my support, in return for theirs. Once, they've outlived their usefulness to the White Fang, those humans will be killed. I don't care about what they want, I only want equality for the Faunus."

Johnson smiled, "that's good to hear, sir. If you need help with anything let me know, you have my full support."

"Thanks, John. I'm glad you trust my judgment."

"Hey Adam, your young and you need all the support you could get. I'm thirty-seven with two children, I'm stressed but I can't imagine the weight on your shoulders." Johnson flashed him a smile, while turning to Adam placing a hand on his shoulder. "I will trust your judgment, because you've saved me and my families lives before, so my life is yours to use."

"Thank you, John. I'm going to head back to the tent and check on our guest, tell Mary and the kids I said hello." Adam said, while turning away from John and walking into the camp.

"I will, Mira and Anna said that they'll be by in the morning to bring you some food. We all worry about you, Adam!" Johnson yelled over his shoulder while he ran towards the sentries.

Adam smiled while he walked through the camp, his soldiers respected him and trusted him, and he they. All the Faunus in this camp believed in what he was doing, they were all brothers and sisters in arms. Adam wouldn't let Blake's betrayal ruin his relationship with the troops, they all knew she was a hypocrite who couldn't help herself. The memory of what happened left a bitter taste in his mouth, he loved Blake and he would see her again. The troops would all take turns checking up on him, making sure he stayed strong and healthy. Adam enjoyed how close he was with them all, since there were civilian Faunus in the camp as well, women who couldn't fight since they were taking care of the children or grandparents. This camp was the safest of all White Fang camps and the most hidden one, making it possible to house all these civilians.

As Adam approached the tent he felt someone's presence following him, he drew wilt in an instant. It's point stopping a centimeter away from his stalker's throat, who stood stiff as a board.

Adam saw the familiar smirk and grayish silver hair, he pulled the sword away from his throat but kept it at the ready. "Mercury, to what do I owe this unpleasant encounter?" Adam asked, with his teeth bared, it was an insult to be stalked like prey in his own camp.

"Nothing much, just enjoying the night air." He smirked, until he found the sword's tip at his throat again. "Okay, okay, jeez you can't take a joke. Cinder sent me to insist that we talk too our guest and make sure that he was the only one in the forest."

"And by 'talk' you mean torture, don't you?" Adam snarled keeping wilt at his throat. "I will not betray a fellow Faunus to you and that witch. She can't kill me, because I serve a purpose which means I'm safe from her betrayal until that purpose is fulfilled." Adam spat furiously at Mercury, "and if I find out, that any of you try to reach him. You will face me, this is where I draw the line and if you humans cross it consider our alliance over, now go and report back too your master like a good slave."

Mercury stayed silent as wilt was pulled away from his throat. Mercury frowned as he turned around and walked away from him, towards the edge of the camp where he placed them.

Adam sighed as he sheathed wilt, running his hand through his hair he turned back towards his tent and walked towards it.

As he pulled back the entrance flap he was greeted by the sight of his guest reading a book beside the cabinet. His guest looked up and smirked, "I was starting to get bored waiting for someone. These are some very interesting books, Faunus biology and history, history of Remnant, Geography, Grimmology, and," he looked at the book in his hand with a raised eyebrow. "Ninja's of Love, huh book porn, cool."

He quietly put the book back on the cabinet and walked back over to the couch. Adam shrugged and took a seat at the table facing his guest.

"So, where the hell am I?" his guest asked, while stretching out his arms.

"You are in one of our camps, humans found you in the woods and the White Fang ensured your protection from them. These two humans are untrustworthy, we couldn't trust them not to torture you for information. The circumstances they found you under were, worrisome." Adam told him while he looked over the map. "Their master is an annoyingly insistent woman, she was the one who wanted you to be questioned. I decided to place you in here, instead of the medic tent, the humans don't have any access to this tent unless I invite them in.

"Huh, that explains that, I guess." He groaned into his fist, "my name is Nero, and your name is. . ." Nero said while gesturing towards him.

Adam smirked, it wasn't everyday he found someone who didn't know who he is. "Adam Taurus, leader of the Vale branch of the White Fang."

"Neat, not everyday I get too meet a leader of an organization." Nero said as he pushed himself off the couch and took a seat at the table with Adam. "I do have one big remaining question for you."

"That would be?" Adam asked leaning back in his chair.

"Can I have my weapons back, I get nervous without them. I don't really like being left defenseless and having them back will definitely help me stay calm." Nero said, placing his blue glowing arm on the table as it pulsed threateningly.

Adam's smirk died on his face as a frown slowly replaced it. "I specifically ordered everyone to leave your weapons on the table, informing everyone that if someone were too wake up in an unknown place without their weapons panic would soon follow." He placed a hand on his chin while tilting it to the side, taking a thinking position.

"Well, they aren't here, so that means somebody took my shit and I really want it back." Nero growled, pulling his arm off the table. "You think one of your people took my weapons?"

"No!" Adam exclaimed jumping out of his seat, "It was the humans, they snuck in here and stole your things. I am going to have a long talk with those fools for going against my decision in my camp!"

"Well, lead the way, Adam. This is your camp, but these are my things so I'm coming with you to reclaim them." Nero said, standing up easily from the table, "but before we go, can I get a jacket or something?"

"Of course," Adam walked over to the cabinet and pulled open one of the drawers, removing a black long-sleeved jacket and tossed it to Nero.

"Stylish," Nero whistled while removing his own ruined jacket and putting on the jacket, he left it unbuttoned. He rolled the sleeve as far down it could go over his right arm, covering up the glowing appendage.

Adam scowled slightly, he was reminded of how Blake would wear a bow over her ears. He turned away from Nero and moved towards the tents exit.

—-WS—-

Nero groaned internally as he followed Adam through the camp, to where the 'humans' were. Nero was still shocked at the appearance of Adam, the horns on top of his head threw him off a bit. While he was waiting, he got bored really quickly and he decided too leaf through the books on the cabinet. The Faunus biology and history, prepared him somewhat for the appearance of Adam as well as the other Faunus in the camp. He couldn't get past the biology part, but clearly Adam thought that he was a Faunus as well and Nero wasn't going to tell them the truth, but he got a feeling that Adam wouldn't really care as long as he wasn't a human. It was clear that Adam didn't fully trust him, but he was starting too. Adam didn't keep his hand on his sword while they walked through the camp. The clear hatred of humans was clear in Adam's description of them, Nero thought he was a leader for a civil rights movement, fighting for the equal rights of the Faunus. Nero respected that sentiment, after all from what he read about it seemed that humans and Faunus weren't all that different, they just had extra appendages that happened to belong to animals.

Nero couldn't help but feel the stares from some of the Faunus, he wasn't enjoying this but the stares weren't hateful ones, they were curious about him. They were probably trying to figure out what kind of Faunus he was.

_Shit, my luck really sucks._ Nero thought to himself, he kept up with Adam, who was leading the way to his things, easily.

Nero felt someone collide with his back and wrap their arms around his waist. He twisted his head to get a better look at who was currently holding him. It was a young girl, she had short dark blue hair and was staring up at him with cyan blue eyes.

"D-dragon," she whispered, her eyes filled with awe. "Are you related to the Blue Dragon who fought in the Faunus wars?"

Nero didn't know what to say and he looked to Adam for help, but the bastard just shrugged with a small smirk. Nero couldn't see his eyes but he suspected that the fucker was delighted in this turn of events. Weren't we going to get my stuff back, what the hell man!! Nero internally screamed at him, hopping to convey his anger at Adam.

"A-are you here to help us fight for equality?" She asked while removing her arms from around Nero.

Nero turned to face the girl, while lowering himself to a crouched position in order to look the girl in the eyes. Nero took a better look at the girl, her clothes were normal but there was something off about her. She held her arms close to her body, Nero looked closer at her arms. Her arms were covered in scars and burns, yet her eyes seemed hopeful. Nero felt disgust and pure white hot anger spike inside his blood, causing devil bringer to glow brightly through the black sleeve on his arm.

"I'm not a hero, kid."

The girl lowered her head at hearing those words, dejected and the hope in her eyes dying.

"But, I can't stand people who would hurt a child. So the answer to your question is, I may not be the best to help fight for equality but I'll do my best." Nero smiled softly placing his hand on top of her head and giving it a soft rub. "Now go and get some sleep, it's still dark and growing kids need sleep."

The girl nodded excitedly while running off in the camp. He and Adam resumed their walk to the edge of camp.

"That was Anna," Adam began, "she was rescued from a Schnee Dust Company work site, she was being forced to work and the site was unsafe. She was being beaten by the SDC's guards and I was leading a raid on the site to free as many of them as possible. She was one of the first Faunus I saved that day, the guards died in the assault. I took her to this camp, she had nowhere else to go, her mother died and left behind a debt to the SDC who made her work in order pay back the debt."

"What is the Blue Dragon and why did she ask me about it?"

"The blue Dragon is a fairy tale that mothers and fathers tell their kids. The Blue Dragon appeared in a flash of blue, his katana glowed with a blue hue as he felled human slavers left and right, saving the Faunus. He kicked off the Faunus Wars, he told them humans respect and fear power, so the only way to free yourselves is to gain more power and protect yourselves. The weak die while the strong prosper, so you must rise from your shackles and become powerful. He was a leader in the Faunus war, he taught them combat and how to use their aura. The blue Dragon never stated his name or used aura, saying that it was a tool for the weak and foolish but that if you are given a tool you must use it to become strong."

Nero nodded along with the story, it wasn't exactly a children's tale but if this is what inspired them and made them happy, he wouldn't say a word against it.

"Anna's mother told her about this story on her deathbed. Anna holds the story of the Blue Dragon close to her heart, so it meant a lot to her for you to agree to that."

"What kind of Faunus is she, I couldn't exactly see any traits on her while I talked to her."

"She's a half blooded Faunus, her mother was a Faunus while her father was a human." Adam said, his voice taking a cold edge.

"What about her father, you didn't mention what happened to him." Nero asked cautiously, he was concerned about where this was going.

"Her mother never told her she said, but it's obvious to older Faunus. Her mother was raped by a human and her mother had her. She is still a Faunus and we will help her, even if humans don't accept her."

"How can you tell she's a half-blood, I haven't run into any half-blood's before." Nero asked, his disgust was making his throat dry.

"Her eyes, half-bloods have different qualities but they all share a common theme. They have greater senses than humans and that is more than enough to oust them in society, there are some that can hide in human societies, but that number is very small. Anna is a very unlucky half-blood, her eyes and hair glow in the dark. A family here in the camp took her in, they love her dearly just as if she was actually their daughter." Adam's grip on his sword was tight, Nero could feel the hatred running off him in waves. "Her story is one of the many out there, that humans cause without a second glance at us. They treat us like dirt underneath their feet and they kick us to the side."

"I-"

"We're here." Adam cut Nero off before he could begin, they stood in front of a red medium sized tent. It was large enough to house three people. "Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury, step out of the tent now!" Adam announced while placing his hand on the handle of his weapon, Nero kept himself still keeping his arm ready, if things went south Devil Bringer would definitely be useful.

"I was expecting you and our guest to arrive, eventually." Said a black haired woman as she exited the tent, she was followed by two other individuals soon after.

"I am here to request his belongings back," Adam informed them as he gestured towards Nero.

The woman snapped her fingers and the green-haired girl retrieved his weapons from the tent and brought them to Nero.

"Why the hell did you take my stuff to begin with?" Nero asked while checking over Red Queen and Blue Rose carefully, they were his closest companions in a way.

"Why, we were trying to find out who you are. There is a registry of all the weapons that belong to Huntsmen and Huntresses, I thought that if I were to find weapons fitting their descriptions I would have your Identity. However, I ran into a snag, your weapons are created differently and your gun doesn't fire bullets does it? You have a combustion system integrated into your sword, while the gun is designed to fire two bullets at once yet the gun has been modified so much that it cannot fire dust rounds. What do you use as ammunition, because I'm sure you wouldn't carry around a useless weapon. In the end, I couldn't find any information about who you are." The black haired woman continued, obviously not affected by the way Nero was glaring at her.

"That still doesn't excuse your actions, Cinder." Adam spat out, "I do not appreciate you sneaking around my back and ignoring a direct order."

"I don't take orders," Cinder said, her voice taking a deadly edge as fire sparked in her eyes. Nero felt his arm throb and a strong desire to kill her build up in his chest, his arm was acting up violently. Nero took deep breaths to calm himself down and resist the urge to crush her with his bare hands.

"Don't forget Cinder, that you need my help in order to exact your plans for Beacon. I know that you can find someone else more controllable to take my place, but the amount of time it would take to bring that person up to my position would delay your plans considerably." Adam spoke with a small smirk on his face.

"You need me for your movement, I supply you with dust, lien, and weapons. If anything you should be taking orders from me, since you benefit a lot from my help. You should be more willing to keep it." Cinder countered, her tone didn't really sit well with Nero. Her smile really pissed Nero off, like she knew something that no one else did and she was lording it over their heads.

"You overestimate your value to me, we both know that we are using one another. I accept this fact and I know that you will keep secrets from me, but know this. If anything you do causes any harm to the Faunus under my command and any civilian Faunus, I will have you and your pets heads." Adam said calmly, the grip on his weapon never relenting once.

"How dare you!!" The green haired teen said, she started to surge forward but was stopped by Cinder.

"Now now, Emerald. Adam was just informing us about where the line stands and to make sure we do not cross it." Cinder spoke calmly but the fire in her eyes raged. "Now lets go to sleep, tomorrow is the day you and Mercury go and check up on Roman. I need to make sure that Imbecile hasn't managed to get himself killed yet.

Nero watched them calmly as they retreated into their tent, while Adam slowly relinquished his hold on the sword.

"Let's find you a place to sleep for the night." Adam said, while turning towards the camp and walking without waiting to hear Nero's reply.

"What the hell was that?" Nero sighed as he stared at the broken moon, "what have I gotten myself into?" Nero asked no one in particular, silently cursing his luck.

—-WS—-

Nero stared blankly at the tents top, wondering why he couldn't sleep on the comfy couch back in the command tent. He felt the grip on his right arm tighten as he tried to pull away and leave the tent, he looked at the blue haired girl who had a death grip on his arm.

"M-mama," Anna murmured in her sleep, as she nestled her self further into his arm.

_Shit, why the hell is she sleeping next to me. I should just wake her up and send her back to her bed_, Nero thought and just as he was about to do it he caught a glimpse of the scars that ran down her arms. _Never mind, she's just a kid and I know how it feels to lose a parent more than anyone. I'll let her sleep and catch some z's myself_. Nero sighed lightly as he settled his left arm behind his head.

—-WS—-

**AN: All right, another chapter written and new character's introduced. I don't know if I portrayed Adam correctly. I feel like he was all for Faunus Equality but Cinder was one of the changing factors in his slow descent into madness. I hope everyone is enjoying how I decided to portray him. I hope that everyone will share their thoughts on everything, and enjoy the story. I hope I sold Nero personality well, as I stated in the top AN. I just couldn't feel happy with the first version of this chapter I wrote, so I scrapped it and redid it from the ground up. I am going to lead up to more backstory into Nero's background and Anna isn't going to be a one use OC. I have a plan for her (one I just thought up, mind you) but nonetheless I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and is looking forward to the next one.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: This first part is going to be a flashback, but not for Nero. This flashback is for little Anna, who I thought needed a more in-depth story. This is going to be told from a past tense first-person perspective, so this is how she saw things. I will have a Nero portion of this as well, can't leave my favorite boy in the cold. I hope that this goes well seriously though since this is my first foray into first-person writing. I am however going to stick with what I write as well as story planning if however, a cool suggestion pops up I will be making use of it. The entire thing feels like a summary of events since I didn't want to make her entire backstory two to three chapters long. I love my little Anna but I feel like that would be getting away from the main point of the story.**

**Once I finish the backstory/summary, we will be changing perspectives back to the third person. I'm also gonna try a new thing, let me know if it works. I am gonna put whose perspective, meaning you'll know that character's thoughts and only them, I'm following beside the transition.**

**Edit: The text was supposed to be more spaced out, my apologies! I normally don't make that mistake at least, I hope this helps.**

—-WS—- (Anna's POV)

I wasn't exactly normal while growing up, I was different than everyone else. My eyes and hair glow in the dark, I had a good amount of friends, both Human and Faunus. I didn't have a dad who raised me, but so did other kids so I wasn't really all that different in that aspect. I would often ask mom where dad was, but she just couldn't tell me. She would only softly smile and say that I inherited his eyes.

My mother was beautiful, she had light blue hair with jellyfish feelers drooping in front of her eyes, which were sea green. She told me she was sixteen when she had me. She was always working in order to take care of the two of us, and she couldn't go to parent-teacher meetings. She couldn't go to any of my school activities with me, it was really unfair but I knew what my mother was trying to hide. She was trying to hide the fact she was a Faunus, an immortal Jellyfish Faunus to be exact, she could reverse her age at will and breath underwater she had, and that I looked human it was the only way I could go to school. The people in charge of the school didn't really like the Faunus and most of my friends were pushed out of school really quickly either by bullying or not being able to pass certain tests. They were rigged against the Faunus in every way possible and it was a dangerous thing me and my mom did. I was pretending to be a Human in order to gain a better position in the world, I couldn't become a huntress. My mom tried to find an instructor to teach me how to fight but we didn't live in a very kind town. It was mostly populated by humans and what Faunus there were, they were all grouped together in the slums. I wasn't really allowed to play outside because she was scared that I would get kidnapped. I did, however, have close friends, who didn't know my secret. It was difficult managing to avoid sleepovers and the like, but I managed by lying. I would often tell them my mother was very ill and I was needed to take care of here at home.

Things only got increasingly difficult as time went on. I started developing more Faunus like traits, I could see in the dark easily and I developed a single trait of my mother's, I could breathe underwater. The most troublesome development was that my eyes and hair started to glow in the dark and while there weren't many human and Faunus relationships around, it was still something that couldn't be explained easily. The times I had to get home before dark was getting earlier and earlier before too long, I couldn't really explain anything to my friends. They couldn't hang out with me anymore and eventually, the rift between us grew too large, ending up with them abandoning me. I was turned into a social outcast in the eyes of my peers, I was unable to meet up with anyone outside of school since it was possible they would notice my Faunus type traits. I could have easily hidden the water-breathing and seeing in the dark, but the glowing in the dark features would have been impossible to explain away. I couldn't say it was a semblance or my aura because we weren't a huntsman school, it was a normal educational school. However, they taught everyone the basics of self-defense, since this was a frontier town children had to be taught just in case the Grimm invade the town. The school did have a huntsman teacher, however, he wasn't allowed to unlock aura for the students. He was strictly there for self-defense teaching and refused to unlock anyone's aura. It wasn't so bad, I decided to focus on my schoolwork and made sure that I headed home early. All in order to keep me and my mother safe, I put aside everything.

Things went well for a long time, that was until I made a mistake. I was held up by a group of students who thought that they should teach me a lesson since I stood out in classes and refused to give anyone copies of my work. They resented me, so they shoved me in a dark basement with only a small window. They decided to leave me down there, and no matter how hard I begged and pleaded with them, they assumed I had a fear of the dark. It only drove them on, fueling their feelings of joy and excitement for this activity. I kept my mouth shut, otherwise, I would only continue to egg them on. I was thankful that it was still daylight when they shoved me in the basement, they didn't have the chance to catch my glowing hair and eyes since they shut the door before I could force my way out of the room.

I sat in the dark basement for hours, I wasn't really scared since my hair provided me enough light to view the whole basement clearly. I had no need to worry since even without my hair the window in the room provided moonlight inside the basement was more than enough for my eyes to pick up on. I had no way to contact my mom, who was more than likely searching for me at that very moment. The only thing I could do was stay quiet and patiently wait for the morning. I wasn't going to be able to escape through the window since it was too small for me to squeeze through. The kids who threw me down there obviously had gotten bored and left, leaving me down there till morning if I was lucky. That isn't what happened, unfortunately, the janitor came to school and decided to come down to the basement I was currently trapped in. This wouldn't have been so bad if my hair wasn't glowing like a glow stick. He helped me out of the basement and brought me to the principal, who wanted to know who was responsible for locking me down there. I told him who they were, they got told off and punished, but their parents wanted to talk to my mother which only added to the stress of them more than likely find out our secret.

I made millions of excuses in order to stall for time, but every time I made an excuse they only got more desperate to talk to my mom. Their kids already sort of apologized to me. I already told mom what was going on and she couldn't understand why they wanted to talk to her. Things started falling apart after that incident, other students thought they could get away with bullying me since my mom never showed up to the school. I was starting to reach my breaking point, it was unbearable. My grades in school were starting to drop and my belongings were getting stolen from me.

My mom had enough of it, she had made plans for us to leave for the city of Vale. She got a loan from the bank and prepared for the move, it was impossible to hire bullhead to fly us there so she had to post that she needed huntsmen and huntresses for an escort to Vale. The trip was going to take two weeks and the cost was to be covered before they left since there was a chance we would be killed by the Grimm. We were going to be in a rough spot until we worked up enough money for a home to stay in. She already had a job in the works there, a nice little bookstore run by an old acquaintance. I would be helping her work there as well, I would be in charge of organizing the bookshelves and working the counter in case the owner was busy.

The day we left the town, we met with the four huntsmen who would be escorting us out of town. They informed us of them being students from Beacon, it wasn't exactly encouraging that they were students. They didn't look at that special or impressive, they came across as generic and fighting Grimm only because they couldn't really do anything else. The teamwork they employed, however, that impressed me. Whenever Grimm attacked our convoy, I would peek out and watch them fight. I watched their moves and took notes on how they moved and fought the Grimm.

The two weeks passed in the blink of an eye, the four huntsmen were actually really nice, even if they were a bit simple. I was able to pick up a few tricks on how to defend myself from Grimm and they taught me how to use a dagger. I still didn't have my aura unlocked, but I had access to weapon training and that instantly improved my odds of being able to become a huntress. If my skills were good enough to garner attention from a trainer, maybe my aura would be unlocked eventually. They would encourage me to try to join Beacon, but I didn't really have a preference for where I ended up to train. I only wanted to become a huntress and help my mom live a comfortable life.

I wasn't able to go back to school, due to the city wanting actual records of new citizens. I and my mom were registered and my status as a half-breed was found out. I didn't really mind all that much, since I was still able to be with my mom and working at the bookstore wasn't so bad. The man who owned it was really nice and he would often read a story out loud as we worked in the store. The amount of work we did in Vale in order to live wasn't too bad, as long as we were together and keeping one another happy.

That didn't last as long as I and mom would have liked. She got really sick and soon it was just me working and trying to repay our debt while taking care of her. She was no longer able to control her Faunus attributes, her body would constantly shift between ages. She had to stay in the bathtub, filled with water since that was the only way for her to stay comfortable. She lost the ability to breathe air and would always be a different age when I got home to take care of her. It was really scary, I was worried that she would have regressed back into a baby and die in the bathtub before I could get home. I didn't have anyone I could turn too for help since her Faunus type was rare. The doctors were confused and utterly baffled by her condition, they had no clue what it was and tried everything they could think of to help her. The amount of debt we had was starting to grow more and more, with every passing day it was getting worse. I received mail from the Bank that if we didn't pay our debt soon they would take everything we had in order to cover their losses. I slept in the bathroom that night with my mom and she did her best to comfort me.

I received a letter from the bank informing that our debt had been paid off, at first I was ecstatic until I saw who had paid our debt. It was an executive from the SDC, she sent an attachment to the bank's letter informing us that she wanted two new workers for her mine and that if we refused she could always find something more uncomfortable for us to do. We only had one choice and that was too work for them, otherwise, things would get worse. I told mom and she agreed with me, that the only way to get out of a bad situation was to work for them. We both knew that it was an idiotic choice, but we didn't have any other options. We prepared what little belongings we had for the journey, we took some clothes and other small things. I took my dagger with me, it was the only gift that I had received and I wasn't going to lose it. I figured out a way for mom to walk around in the air, she had to constantly drink water while outside of the bathtub, but other than that we were fine. We said our goodbyes to the man who ran the bookstore and informed him of where we were going. He wasn't happy, he was saddened by the loss of two workers. He wished us luck and he gave mom a piece of paper on it and told her to call this number when she arrived at the SDC mine. She assured him that she would and he visibly looked more relaxed and relieved.

We met with the people who would take us to our new "home," they lead us to the bullhead. They helped us on the vehicle, I tried to talk to one of the people and figure out how long it would take for us to arrive at the place. Only one made an attempt to look and talk to us, he looked physically ill whenever he spoke. We chalked it up to him being ill at the time, however, that was until we neared the end of our trip. He warned us what the place we would be working at would be like and informed us that he would be working there as well. He gave us his name, which was Chris, and told us where to find him. He was in charge of maintaining the robotic guards, that was in charge of patrolling the perimeter. He told us to try and keep to ourselves and the other miners since they were in the same position as us. Chris believed in Faunus equality and while he couldn't do much to help us, he promised that he would try to do his best. He told us to come by his office and he would warn them of who to avoid while working here. Once the plane landed he stopped speaking to us and stood up quickly, his back stiff. I looked at mom, my eyes were wide with fear and worry, but she placed her hand atop my head and smiled. She promised me that things would work out, she ran to the bathrooms right when we made it inside the camp. She called the number, there was no answer on the other end.

Mom. . . she passed away, two weeks after we arrived. It was due to her condition and it was only getting worse, I-i tried everything in order to help her but it wasn't enough. She told me a story about a man who was disgusted by weakness and always strove for more power, he lost things in order to gain power. While we slept together she passed away in the middle of the night, she had a content smile on her face.

It was the day after her passing and I developed her other trait, I could shift my age back and forwards at will now. It helped with heavy lifting around the camp, but it was a dangerous thing to use. If the guards caught me, I don't know what would happen to me.

The White Fang arrived two days after she died, I was getting beaten by the human guards since I couldn't keep working like all the others. They stormed the camp and a lot of humans died in the attack, except the ones that surrendered. They were left there, tied up and with a message for the other humans.

I was taken back to their camp and that is where I met Adam. He was kind and calm, he tried his best to minimize casualties in the fighting. He had a girl, with black hair and cat ears on her head, with him during the talk we had. I was then placed in a foster home of sorts, they took good care of me and adopted me in a way. I was with them for months and all the time I spent with them was important to me, the helped me grieve for my mom and I gained a new family that would protect me, but who would protect them.

—-WS—- (Anna's POV)

Anna woke up and pulled herself off of Nero, whose arm she had been clinging to before she fell asleep. He was still asleep on the cot and Anna made sure not to wake him as she climbed out of the bed. She fixed the covers over him and crept into the main area of the big tent, Mary was already awake and making breakfast for her family and their added guest for the night. Anna padded her feet lightly against the fabric of the tent, she pulled up a chair at the table.

"Morning Anna, did you sleep well?" Mary asked while focusing on the oven in front of her. She struggled to keep the teasing tone out of her voice, while others would have been suspicious of a stranger she wasn't due to the fact that Adam had brought him here and requested a place for him to sleep. They had a guest room it was pretty close to the kitchen and Anna's room, but she didn't expect Anna to sneak into the bed with him.

"I slept pretty well," Anna said, keeping her face neutral as she stared at her foster mom. "I may have disturbed his sleep, though." She said, with a hint of guilt creeping into her voice. She didn't understand why she crept into his bed, it probably had to do with his similarities to the Blue Dragon.

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it. If you really bothered him, he would have kicked you out and told you not to do that ever again."

"Why didn't he?"

"Hey, don't ask me! I can't reach into his head and pull his thoughts out," Mary sighed and looked over at the guest room, "but if I had to guess, he maybe didn't want to be rude to a kid."

"Hey, I'm not a kid!" Anna groaned into the table as she placed her head down.

"Uh huh, sure little missy if you say so." Mary turned her head, pink hair covering up one of her eyes, and smiled at her, "but I wonder about that? Wouldn't a kid forget what she was supposed to do today?" She smirked, as she gestured over to a basket on the table next to her. Her crocodile tail tapping against the basket with a small amount of strength

Anna stared at the basket, while she raked her mind for something she was supposed to do today. She didn't think there was any particular thing she was supposed to do. . . was there? She looked at the basket, it had food in it and it was wrapped up.

"Adam! Mira and I were supposed to bring him food this morning! It totally slipped my mind," Anna immediately jumped out of the chair and rushed into Mira's room.

Mary smirked, as she listened to the hushed yelling between her kids. "Score for me, hehe." She chuckled silently, as she waited for them to rush back and grab the basket.

"We gotta move, quickly! Otherwise, he'll forget to eat something all day!" Mira spoke quickly and hushed, trying not to wake up their guest. Anna was trailing behind her, trying to flatten out any cowlicks in Mira's strawberry pink hair. Anna struggled, with avoiding her crocodile tail that trailed behind her and avoiding her floppy dog ears. Anna had to shift her age in order to become tall enough to reach her hair easily, her body developed as well and that was an interesting sight. They were just lucky that she always wore a sweatshirt and pants, that stretched with her and kept her clothed.

"Mira, just because your two years older than Anna doesn't mean she has to fix your hair for you!" Mary sighed, as she looked at the sixteen-year-old girl.

"She started doing this on her own, I don't really force her to do anything. Besides, she can shift her age around, so do we really have to worry about that? It's not like I can pull rank on her for my age when she can just shift hers around." Mira pouted, as her tail wrapped itself around Anna's waist.

"It doesn't work that way, she still is mentally fourteen years old! She has to grow mentally and emotionally as well, that makes you the oldest, in my opinion at least." Mary sighed at this old argument between them all.

"I don't really mind, helping her at least. After all, she has a crush on Adam, so I figured I better fix her hair before we show up at his tent." Anna said, keeping her hands against Mira's hair and patting down cowlicks. She ignored the sudden increase of pressure against her waist, where Mira was trying to squeeze her into silence. "She really needs all the help she can get since she has no sense of embarrassment. While, that's good and all, it really gets in the way of her style or taking care in her appearance, though."

Mira's face turned a dark red, Anna could see the steam that rose off her forehead. "Anna! You traitor, why would you tell her that!" She exclaimed while she shook Anna with her tail. Anna started to laugh at her face and Mary started laughing as well.

The sudden noise caused their guest to groan loudly, which caused all three to stop in their tracks. They looked at one another and nodded, this could continue once their guest woke up. Mary hooked her tail through the basket's handle and passed it to her daughters, the two crept out of the tent with a small amount of urgency.

"Make sure you two come back quickly, your breakfast will be done soon!" Mary whispered after them as they exited the tent.

Anna watched as Mira stuck her tail back in the tent to show that they heard her, with the basket in tow they headed straight for Adam's tent.

"Why did you tell her that? I said I wanted to keep that a secret, and you go and spill it immediately."

"Cuz, I thought it was common knowledge," Anna said while shrugging. She thought it was rather obvious and common knowledge for everyone, not just her family. The only person who didn't notice was Adam, which was really amusing in a weird way.

"A-am I really that obvious?" Mira asked, her face turning pale and eyes growing wide.

"Yup! You get really red in the face, start to stutter or not talk at all whenever he's around. I started to help you because it stopped being funny a month ago and now it's just really sad." Anna watched as her face, turned all the shades of pink and red in a matter of seconds.

"Thanks, you're the best! I really appreciate you helping me!" Mira squealed happily and hugged her from behind.

'_That's what you focus on, really? The helping part and not the other things, you really have selective hearing don't you?_' Anna thought as she kept walking with her added attachment to her body, dragging Mira along as she squealed in her ear.

She stopped dead in her tracks as she spotted the two people in the camp that didn't belong. The silver-haired killer and the green haired liar, she tried to keep moving before they spotted her. There was something wrong with these two, one came across as a killer who acted immature while the other was deathly loyal to her boss. They were standing in her path so that it was all but impossible for them not to see them. Adam made sure to warn everyone in the camp to watch out for these two, they were dangerous.

'_This is going to suck, I am really bad at talking to these two! I do whatever I have to in order to avoid them!_' Anna internally screamed, while the two people she wanted to avoid started to approach her and Mira.

"Hey, how are you two doing this morning?" The killer asked, his smirk seemed really sharp.

"Fine," Anna attempted to move around them only to be blocked by the liar. "Would you mind, moving out of the way? We have something important to do." She spoke calmly while keeping Mira behind her, she was trying to keep her older sister safe. She didn't trust these two, they gave off really bad vibes.

"Not at all! I just have a little question for you two, where is the cafeteria? We haven't really been shown around and I'm really hungry. We've been eating in Cinder's tent for months now and I wanna see how the White Fang makes their breakfast. Is it vegetarian or something suited for different pallets for each different Faunus?" The killer smiled warmly, but his eyes stayed cold.

Anna stared him in the eyes, considering her answer. "It's back the way you came from, you missed it. Once you get to the crossing take a left and head towards the large blue tent and you'll find the cafeteria. I hope you have a good rest of the day!" Anna moved around them, Mira in tow and moved towards the center of the camp where Adam's tent was located.

"Hey, Anna what's wrong!?" Mira whispered harshly in her ear, but Anna paid it no mind. She had just told those two the wrong directions too the mess hall and she wanted to get as far away from them as possible!

Anna knew what they were capable of, she was there when they were first brought to the camp and it wasn't a good day. She knew the terms that Adam has with them, while others didn't. They are some of the worst people humanity had to offer, she knew it in her gut. She wasn't sure about the green one, but the silver one was defiantly a killer. He felt wrong, he was the wrong amount of nice and he joked too much.

"Nothing," she said, after realizing she had been quiet for too long. "I just didn't want to talk to them, you know?"

"Yeah, totally! We have an important job, after all, so we couldn't talk to them."

"Yup! We have to make sure our fearless leader eats. He is the one planning all our movements, so if he burns himself out, who is going to be in charge of leading us?"

"I wonder if he will like the biscuits, I made them last night so I'm not sure they're any good."

"I'm sure he'll like them, besides we have to make sure he eats them, after all, Mary will want her basket back I'm sure."

"Hey Anna, I've been wondering about something, why do you call me, big sis, and dad, dad? Why do you call mom, Mary?"

"Well, I never had a sister or a dad, but I had a mom. I felt like that it would be wrong to call someone else mom. I don't know, I feel that it isn't the right time to call her that yet, but I will eventually." Anna said while she pushed Mira from around her neck and in front of her. She shifted her age back to normal and hopped onto Mira's back.

"Oof, you're heavy! I don't think, I'll be able to make it!" Mira gasped, dramatically placing her arm against her forehead. "This is the end for me! Tell Mom and Dad, I love them!"

"Stop whining, Pupodile! You have a crocodile tail that is connected to your back, I know you have strong bones so I don't want to hear it." Anna said as she continued where she left off on Mira's hair, twisting the pink locks into a braid while making sure to correctly situate the ears on her head.

"Yeah, yeah! You win this round, however," Mira placed her arms under Anna's legs and secured her place on her back. "I want you to come with me to Adam's combat lesson!"

"Nope!"

"So fast! Why not, aren't you the one who wants to learn how to fight?"

"I already know how, kinda. I just want to help people, I don't think I'm cut out for fighting. I'm leaning towards becoming a doctor or a combat medic, that way I can patch up anyone who needs it!"

"Ok, fine. You don't have to take part in the lesson, but you could watch me. I am one of his best pupils, after all! You could even help me if I get hurt! So how about it, we have a deal?"

'_Only because the other one abandoned him,_' she thought with a sad smile on her face. Anna knew that Mira's feelings for Adam were just puppy love, a crush at best. There was no way Adam would respond to those feelings and if he did, it would be in the form of rejection.

"Sure, if only to make sure that you don't embarrass yourself," Anna said, which earned a playful smack on the head from Mira's crocodile tail.

"Don't mess with me, sis! I am the one currently carrying you around, I could easily drop you in the mud."

"Ha, you wish!" Anna laughed at her threat and before too long Mira joined in. The two made their way through the White Fang camp laughing.

—-WS—-(Anna's POV)

Mira and Anna made it to Adam's tent after three minutes of walking.

"Hello, Adam are you in there!?" Mira announced at the entranceway of the tent. She didn't want to walk in unannounced and end up offending Adam.

"Yes, I am, and you two can go ahead and come inside," Adam answered, his voice sounding weary.

Anna pushed the flap aside and let Mira walk in first. She heard Mira take in a sharp intake of breath and quickly ducked inside as well in order to check on her.

Adam had forgotten to place his mask back on, which allowed them to see the SDC brand over his left eye. He realized his mistake instantly and quickly placed his visor back over his eyes while sighing.

"I'm sorry, I forgot that I took it off for a moment to collect my thoughts."

"D-don't worry about it," Mira replied with a shaky voice.

Anna stayed quiet as she nudged Mira in the ribs, trying to signal her to get on with it. She was starting to get hungry and she wanted breakfast already!

_'__I knew there was another reason for his dislike of humans, not just hatred for the sake of it. He has a personal reason and he yet he still tries to keep from hurting humans, only killing if it was a last resort._' Anna stared at Mira who struggled to speak and give him the food, '_come on sis, I gave you this chance, do not waste it!_'

"H-here y-you goes," Mira stuttered as she held the basket out in her hands.

"Thank you, Mira." Adam reached for the basket and his hand briefly touched Mira's, causing her face to go red and her tail to wag happily.

Anna had to bite her tongue to keep her from laughing, it was a pupodile and it was just so Mira! It didn't work too well since both Adam and Mira looked at her. Mira was glaring daggers at her, while Adam looked concerned.

It was too much for her and she fell to the ground laughing at the both of them. They continued talking and ignored her, letting her sort herself out. She slowly stopped laughing and took deep breaths, as the two of them reached the end of their conversation.

"Can you pass along my message to him?" Adam asked Mira, with a small smile on his face.

"Definitely, we were going to head straight back anyway!"

"Thanks, be sure to tell him to bring his weapons as well."

"You got it, Adam!" Mira exclaimed excitedly, she turned quickly and picked Anna up, carrying her underneath her arm.

Anna could only blink as things moved too quickly for her to understand, they were going to tell someone something and she had a feeling who they were going to see.

—-WS—-

AN: OK, so this is the first third of a full sitting of writing. I wrote over 16k words and I wanted to have buffer chapters, all in order to write even further ahead. I am going to be implementing a plan from now, a schedule if you will. I want to stick by it and I'll be uploading the second third next week Wensday. I hope every one enjoyed this chapter and the characters I introduced, I hope it felt natural and actually impressive. Onto a different thing, The Immortal Jellyfish Faunus thing, I wanted to do a sea creature Type Faunus and I even went back to see if I stated a Faunus type in the previous chapter for her, it was a spur of the moment in planning however it fits in the long run of the story. I spent an hour researching awesome things that live in the ocean, I implemented a couple of things that wasn't really confirmed in the RWBY show itself. They showed a Faunus who had wings and was able to fly, so I assumed that it wasn't part of his semblance just a natural trait from his animal genetics. Also, the pupodile, Mira, I wanted to use a form a genetics in the show as well. Blake parents, one is a cat and the other is as well, only a really big cat I guess? I have no clue what he is to be honest, but I am guessing they are in the same category of cat so Blake got cat ears, at least in my logic. I didn't really see any characters that have parents of different Faunus Type or a Human/Faunus relationship, so I have wiggle room to use my logic in this Horray! I love creating a new thing, and explaining my logic behind everything hopefully it isn't flawed. The backstory was more like a summary that was told from her perspective with details that can be filled in later, you can sort of see what you can in her character development. I like how I portrayed her and love what I did with Mira, I mean seriously a cute puppy crossed with a crocodile. It equals an adorable pink-haired, dog-eared crocodile-tailed girl that loves her sister! This chapter will be posted no matter what on Friday, Meaning that even if I am horribly injured or in a crisis it will be uploaded! I have been gone for too long and I really enjoyed writing this story as well!

Any questions, comments or concerns? I want to get some honest opinions as well as what everyone enjoyed in the chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

**An: I hope this came out ok, please let me know what everybody thought. I tried something with the fighting, I'm trying to find a fighting scene writin method that works for me**.

—-WS—- (Nero's POV)

Nero groaned as he rolled from the bed into the floor of the tent. His legs had been tangled up in the covers, he pulled it off him and tossed it into the bed.

Nero stretched his arms out as he stood from the floor, he sat on the edge of the bed and yawned. He pulled on the jacket that Adam lent him, pulling the sleeve as far as it could go over his arm. They may have been accepting of him, but he sure as hell wasn't comfortable with it, yet!

'_Shit, I was hoping that everything that happened yesterday was a dream! I shouldn't be in a different place than earth, how the fuck would I even get here!? The only thing keeping me from flipping my shit yesterday was the possibility that demons were fucking with me! I decided to play along with everything, but as the day went along I noticed that things were too detailed for a dream! I got my stuff back, Devil Bringer acted up towards that Cinder person, there are people here and they didn't bat an eye at my arm but then again they believe that I'm one of them as well. A completely normal person who showed up out of nowhere?_' Nero placed his head in his hands and sighed, what was he going to do now?

'_I have to find something for me to do, I can't sit in one place with my thumb up my ass doing nothing!_' Nero sighed and pushed himself off the bed, he'll worry about all that later. He picked up his weapons and holstered them in their rightful places. Red Queen used a magnetic holster, that connected it to his back. He had to remove it from his previous jacket in order to use it with his borrowed jacket from Adam. Blue Rose was in the clear since its holster was on his thigh and it avoided any damage. He saw a table in the kitchen, he could do a really quick weapon check in there.

He pushed himself through the flap connecting to the main tent and found himself in the kitchen, where a woman was making breakfast on the stove.

"Good morning, guest! I don't believe we had the pleasure of making one another's acquaintance the other day!" She turned away from the stove while keeping her tail in front of her in order to keep from knocking stuff off the stove. Nero took in her appearance, she had magenta eyes with one being covered by her pink hair.

"Morning, thanks for putting me up for the night. I didn't have another place to stay for the night." Nero said, struggling to not look at the crocodile tail that was currently throwing him for a loop. 'Seriously, humans with animal features and traits!? That's a bit much,' he looked at the tail. 'Is it rude to stare or something?'

"My name is Mary, its nice to meet you!" Mary smiled and reached out her hand.

"Nero," he said as he took her hand in his, devil bringer glowing a faint blue.

"Does your arm always glow?" Mary asked as she turned back to the stove, quickly stirring the food before it burned.

"Yes, It normally glows. I don't really leave it uncovered for long though, so it doesn't really bother other people."

"Does it change color or is it a single color?"

"It varies, between light and dark blue colors. That's about it, I think?" Nero sighed, pulling up a chair at the table as he continued to talk to Mary. "Any reason for asking me that?"

"Nothing, really just curious about it, is all. It's not every day you meet someone who has a glowing reptilian arm, it's a rare sight."

"Oh, where's the kid at? I wanted to ask, why she slept in the bed with me?"

"She went with Mira to deliver food to Adam. Did she bother you?"

"Not really, I mean how would she? She stayed quiet and didn't toss and turn, staying latched to my arm like a tick. If she really pissed me off, I would have kicked her out and sent her back to her room."

"That's nice to hear, I'm glad that she didn't cause any bother! I worry about her sometimes, she has a habit of keeping things to herself. I am glad that you were kind enough to let her stay, if only for that night."

"Do you mind if I check my weapons on the table?" Nero asked as he shrugged Red Queen off his back and as he placed Blue rose on the top of the table.

"Sure, go ahead! I'll have some breakfast ready for you in a moment, are you good with eggs?" Nero nodded his head to her question, "good!" Mary turned around and started to fix him a plate, while Nero attended to his weapons.

He unloaded the gun, placing the bullets on the table and opening up the cylinder. He learned a neat trick for cleaning and maintaining his gun, if he focused energy from Devil Bringer he could not only power up his bullets but maintain his gun as well. He just had to make sure that he unloaded the bullets from the gun, otherwise they would be charged by the energy and need to be shot. The reason why, was because the overcharged bullets tended to explode if left alone for too long.

Mary watched him as he cleaned the gun, her visible eye widening at the sight of blue energy covering it. She had a plate of food in her hand and decided to wait for him to finish up, staying silent she watched as Nero examined the inside of the cylinder, looking for any remnants of sediment. After finding none, Nero was pleased with his work and holstered Blue Rose back where it belonged. He placed Red Queen atop the table and looked it over, the metal was still in good, Exceed was still in tact and the throttle still worked. He gave it an experimental throttle, turning the blade an angry orange. Smirking, he waited for it to cool down before he placed it beside his chair.

"Did you make your weapons?" She asked while examining his gun, it was a heavily modified revolver. She could see that it had two barrels, and eyed the intricate pattern of a blue rose that ran along the receiver of the gun.

"The revolver is mine, I call her Blue Rose, it can only be used by me since the kickback alone from two bullets is enough to break a normal person's hand. I designed her when I realized how difficult it was to reach flying demons as well as piercing their thick hide. It fires the bullets with a slight time difference, the bottom barrel fires a hollow point round that pierces the armor and the top bullet follows hitting the exact same spot as the hollow point."

"The sword, Red Queen, was developed by someone else, however I made a few modifications to it. The exceed system was already implicated in it, but I modified it for extra power and mobility. It can use the exceed function three times, this sword is more than enough to tear through demons. It can't be used by others for the same reason as Blue Rose, only I can use it making it one of my specialty weapons." Nero explained, with a small smile growing over his face. He loved his weapons, they were his long time companions and they deserved the respect he gave them.

"Demons? Is that what you call the Grimm?" Mary asked, her tail flicking behind her as she handed him the plate of food.

"Y-yes, that's what we call them where I'm from." Nero said, thinking back to the books that he leafed through yesterday while he was in Adam's tent. He had to remember that this wasn't the same place he was from, they called these things Grimm but they did have different names. He was safe in that regard however, there were no mention of creatures that resembled the demons he knew. He didn't have time to look through the whole book, which hopefully he could have access to again. If he was going to be around here for a while it would be good to familiarize himself with the indigenous dangers that he was going to face.

"Ok, but back to your weapons! I noticed that they didn't have mecha-shift capabilities but they are extremely advanced singular pieces more advanced than our weapons at least. Why did you create them like that, when you could have put them both together like a Huntsmen does?"

"Think of it like this, if you lost your weapon, which had both in one, you would have no means to defend yourself. I think having a weapon made for a single purpose instead of multiple, means that its damn perfect at what it does!" He quickly bullshited, something that sounded sort of logical. This day was starting to become very informative in a lot of ways at once. "Besides, I'm not a Huntsmen. I'm more of a passerby with no where else to go, in a way. I don't have a lot to go in the way of money, at least and I'm guessing that making a whatchamacllit is super expensive."

"Are you looking for somewhere to stay?"

"Yeah." Nero answered as he bit into the food on the plate, they were some good eggs. He would have preferred some pizza, but he would take what he could get.

"You could join the White Fang, Adam already seems to like you so I'm more than sure that he would let you stay here!"

"I-i don't know about that," besides he was pretty sure Adam trusted anyone who wasn't human easier. He handed her the plate and she took it with an easy smile.

"You wouldn't be working for free mind you, since it's obvious that you have more technical skill and combat prowess than the other White Fang members. You would make more money than them at least, all you'd have to do is jobs that Adam would assign you." She said with a small smile and clear patience in her argument. "There's some water in the fridge if you want some."

"What the hell, are you a recruiter or something?" He asked jokingly, she was trying really hard to get him to join. He stood from the chair and walked over to the fridge and grabbed himself a water and starting to take a drink.

"Sort of, I am in charge of the weapons department and we are always looking for people who know their stuff." She said, which caused Nero to nearly choke on the bottle of water. "I won't ask you to create more weapons for us or anything, I just want you to share some notes with me and you can do whatever else you want. If you want to work with Adam go ahead or if you just hang around the camp and protect it from Grimm go for it, I just want to protect my family and either way you'll be contributing to their defense."

"At least your honest, most people would have lied and tried to steal my stuff in order to examine them."

"Why would I steal from a fellow Faunus, we are all here fighting for equality aren't we?"

"Yup," Nero said with a casual smirk, he was starting to like the idea of a group fighting for equality. They seemed to be doing things in a somewhat peaceful way, only resorting to force as a last result in order to protect themselves.

At that moment, two people burst through the tent entrance and Nero snapped his head towards them. He instantly recognized one of them, it was Anna and she was being carried underneath the other ones arm. The other one had pink hair, a pair of dog ears and a crocodile tail trailing behind her as well.

"Mom, we're back!" The young girl said, while Anna struggled to escape her grip.

"I can see that," Mary said, "what did Adam say?"

"He loved the food!"

"Anything else?"

"Umm. . ." The young girl released Anna and cupped her chin.

Anna stared at the girl, "didn't it have something to do with his combat lesson?"

"How would you know, you were too busy laughing on the floor!"

"Yeah, I was but how did you forget when you were the one talking to him!?"

"Whatever, at least I talked like a normal person!"

"Girls! Mira, What did Adam say about the combat lesson?" Mary asked, while brandishing a frying pan that she pulled off the stove.

"He said," Mira cleared her throat, ""Ensure that Nero, the guest, arrives at the training grounds. I wish to have a discussion with him as well as for him to observe the teaching of the troops.""

"That was really close to how he actually sounded," Anna looked at Mira in disgust. "How low have you fallen, sister?"

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Nothing at all, just amazed at how you were able to copy his voice so well. It's really impressive!"

Mary rolled her eyes as she watched her children bicker, "well I guess that means your up, Nero."

"All right, I'm down for talking and watching a lesson. I wonder how he fights with that weapon of his?"

Mira hearing his question, jumped at the chance to talk about Adam. "He fights with passion and skill, he uses his semblance in perfect sync with his swordsmanship! He is singlehandedly one of the most powerful members in the White Fang."

"Anything else you got on him?" He wanted more information on what a semblance was, but figured it better to keep quiet. That question could draw unwanted suspicion on him.

"Well, he has a ranged weapon but he never seems to use for actual ranged attacks. He only uses it when he is at point-blank range. He uses his sword to attack at different ranges, it's almost like he's moving at high speeds and immediately returns to his original position as he sheathes the sword."

"Has anyone ever beaten him?"

Mira scrunched her face in thought, "I don't think so, he never lost once even in a friendly sparring match. He goes easy on everyone, but he doesn't tolerate stupid mistakes. He took on the entire class, and managed to beat them all in one single sword strike! It was awesome!"

"Huh, ok. That does sound impressive." He grabbed Red Queen and placed it back upon his back. "Are you two going there?"

"Yeah, I'm part of the class and Anna is going with just to make sure I don't get hurt." She picked the blue-haired girl up and placed her on shoulders.

"Well, maybe you all should get moving? Adam doesn't have the greatest amount of patience and he wanted to talk to Nero before that, didn't he?" Mary asked while pushing the two girls towards the exit of the tent, and gave them a bag before they exited. "Make sure to eat that, training on an empty stomach isn't a good idea."

—-WS—- (Nero's POV)

"So, this is the training ground?" Nero asked, taking in the sight of the barren ground. It was still inside the camp, the walls that surrounded the camp were made out of wood but the ramparts that ran along the top of them suggested that they were in the clear of wild animals. It was also located a good distance away from the other tents.

"Yeah, it's not much but its the best we have. I personally like it, we can cause so many explosions that we don't have to worry about other people!" Mira said, with a gleam in her eyes at the thought of explosions.

"Ok," Nero surveyed the area and spotted Adam, it wasn't really hard to miss him especially considering his outfit. "I'll talk to you two later."

The two kids nodded and walked over to where the other troops were standing.

He approached Adam, who kept his hands behind his back while looking in the distance outside the camp.

"Nero, I trust that you had a restful night with no disturbances?" He asked, with a thinly veiled question that ran synonymous with it. 'Did the humans try anything?'

"Yeah, it was real peaceful. I woke up so refreshed, I didn't know where I was."

"That's a relief, I wanted to ask you something." Adam said, turning to face Nero. "I want you to join the White Fang."

"What!? Just like that, you met me yesterday. I'm sure I didn't leave a strong enough impression for you to offer me a job."

"It wasn't going to be just like that, there's going to be a test."

"Okay, so there was going to be test. I still think that you're offering me a job, way to fast! You barely know me, let alone trust me! So why the hell would you want me, a total stranger to work with you?" Nero stared at Adam, hoping to come to an understanding as to why he wanted him to work with him. He could understand Mary's pitch, she wanted to make sure her family could stay safe but what was Adam's reasoning?

"If I was to ask you about where you were from, would you tell me?"

"What I could."

"Would you help me if I was in danger?"

"Huh, yeah why the hell wouldn't I? You don't leave anyone to die, if they need your help!"

"Even if they were an enemy?"

". . . Yes, you can capture them and use them to gain more information. It would be a stupid idea to let someone who had information die."

"What would you even have me doing?" Nero cautiously asked, while Adam remained silent. He was the new guy in camp, while the others trusted him implicitly they should exercise a small amount of caution.

"You would accompany me to Vale, I have to go with Cinder in order to establish contact with a human criminal."

"Your going to work with a criminal!?" He was confused, what was special about Cinder that allowed her this amount of control within Adam's group.

"Not willingly, I wouldn't be working with him if it wasn't for Cinder. I would focus on sending our message to the humans. I would ask you to help me, I have to lend him troops in order for him to accomplish his tasks."

Nero turned away from Adam and looked to the sky. He wasn't above helping them, he needed something to do while he was stuck here. He didn't even know if he wanted to go back, there was nothing there that made him want to return. He was already ostracized by the organization for using a gun to kill demons, and his attitude towards others didn't help all that much. He didn't believe in their religion which also caused a lot of people to dislike him.

While he would be here, he would need a place to stay and that could be provided to him if he worked with Adam. He would have a source of money and information as well as killing monsters, if anything it would be the same as earth. The only difference being he would have acceptance for what he was, even if they thought he was a Faunus, they didn't judge him for his arm's appearance. He pondered on this topic for a moment, if he was to take this job he needed to understand his employer.

"So, you want me to be sure to have your back should anything go wrong? I don't mind helping but I am more than enough to kick ass, if anything I might be too useful."

"Oh, are you sure about that?"

"Mmm, yeah pretty sure!"

"Then, I'm sure you'll pass this test with flying colors." Adam said, a small smirk growing on his face.

"Hit me, what's the test? Whatever it is I can handle it!"

"I want you to face me in a friendly spar." Adam said, while placing a hand atop his weapon.

"That's it, I was hoping for more of challenge but if that's how you want to do things." Nero said, taking a hold of Red Queen with his left hand while keeping his right unarmed. "What are the rules?"

"Combat stops when the other is rendered unable to fight. We don't have any devices that measure aura, this is the best way to gauge our abilities. Our auras will protect us enough allowing us to fight in even terms." He took a look at Nero, "well as even as possible." Adam smiled, as he looked towards Nero.

Nero frowned, that made things interesting. He didn't have whatever the hell he was talking about and he sure as hell wasn't going to mention it. Nero would have to win this fight perfectly and stylishly, he smirked. "You got yourself a deal, however one condition."

"What would that be?"

"If I win, I'm not a part of your White Fang. I am an equal, a partner. I don't want someone telling me what to do with my life, but if I am a partner then I reserve the right to refuse a mission. I get to decide how to execute the mission!"

"Hmm, those are steep terms but if we are equals does that mean I get an equal say in what you do?"

"That's what partners do? So what do you say, wanna make a deal with a devil?" Nero smirked as he saw the consideration on Adam's face.

"You have yourself a deal, however that means I'm not going to be holding back in this fight. If you want to claim to be a partner then you have to be strong enough for it."

Nero nodded as he turned and moved a distance away from Adam, while he addressed his troops informing them of the oncoming spar.

Nero stood at the ready and waited until it was time to start the fight, he heard a noise approaching him and he turned his head towards it.

It was Anna, she had a worried look on her face. "Are you sure about this, you don't have to fight Adam. You could change the conditions back to normal and just work for him!"

"No, that ain't happening. I won't let someone else have control of my life, since after all I am the one putting myself at risk if I lose."

"Bu-"

"I am not going to lose, I am going to win! Now get back to the crowd," Nero looked at the girl, "and make sure to watch my performance."

Anna ran back to the crowd and stood alongside her sister.

Nero stretched as he revved up the exceed system on Red Queen, he looked down at his right arm. It was going to be the first fight he had since fighting Berial, that cheating fucker used a cheap trick and got him sent here.

Adam moved back and eased into a combat ready state, keeping his hand on the hilt of his weapon ready to draw it at a moments notice. "You get the first strike, go ahead when your ready."

Nero switched Red Queen for Blue Rose, if his description of this aura thing was to be believed that meant he could take a full fight. Nero was more than willing to give him that, he charged Blue Rose while taking aim at Adam.

As he pulled the trigger Nero was already on the move, running around Adam while he unloaded bullet after bullet towards him.

Adam was able to use his blade to deflect each shot into the air, while the red on his body started to glow. Nero watched as he continued his assault that was getting nowhere, he needed to close the distance.

Adam sliced through the next bullet while releasing a wave of red energy towards him, Nero's eyes widened as he rolled to the side.

"How the hell'd you do that! You can throw laser's at me, what the fuck man! Talk about lame, is that sword just for show then!?" Nero yelled at Adam while he kept advancing towards him in a circle, with each shot he was getting closer.

Adam stayed silent, before he was gone in a flash and slashed at Nero's chest. Nero was unprepared for the sudden outburst of speed and barely managed to avoid getting slashed. He repaid Adam's effort with a point blank shot to the chest, knocking him back. Nero revved Red Queen one more time before he placed it on his back once more, it's blade glowing an angry orange while the edge had a red cherry glow.

Nero could feel the heat on his back, but thanks to the magnetic sheath it didn't touch is back.

Adam recovered from the shot to the chest, his body was glowing again. He rushed Nero and swung, his body seemed to multiply. There were three Adam's and all were in a line swinging their blades towards him, he was barely managing to keep from getting hit by his blade.

Nero grit his teeth as he jumped backwards, focusing energy from Devil Bringer to the bottom of his feet and jumped backwards once more. He fired Blue Rose while in the air, causing Adam to disengage in order to gain distance once more.

Adam lost his after images/clones, he stood at the ready while watching Nero carefully. Nero revved Red queen a third time, it's engine hummed and the heat coming from the blade was extreme. Nero rushed Adam while keeping his hand on Red Queen, he slammed the blade towards him with all his might.

The Blade moved through Adam, who was perfectly still it was a after Image. Nero had a split second to catch Adam's sword before it bit into his neck, he griped the weapon with Devil Bringer. Adam had a small look of surprise on his face while Nero brought the flat of Red Queen against his side, hard.

Nero laughed as he gained some breathing room, "you are pretty good, but I'm not going down without a fight! So let's rock!"

"Hmm." Adam returned the weapon to his sheath and waited for Nero's approach.

Nero hefted Red Queen and launched himself towards Adam, keeping it perfectly pointed at him. Adam parried the strike and kicked Nero in the stomach.

Nero gritted his teeth and brought Red Queen back down for an overhead slash.

The slash caught Adam by the shoulder and knocked him off balance, he felt Red Queen impact there but there was no blood he didn't ponder about for long as Nero seized this opportunity and punched him directly in the stomach with Devil Bringer. Nero felt Adam crumple around his fist as well as the invisible field that didn't allow him to actually hit skin.

Adam landed in a crouch with his weapon still at the ready, they were apparently not done with the fight yet. He readied his blade and approached Nero with caution, keeping his stance guarded ready to answer any of Nero's attacks.

Nero moved forward revving the exceed function as much as he could while he and Adam circled one another. He needed to go all out with this attack, if he took Adam by surprise he may have a chance to end it quickly.

Nero took a deep breath and focused on Devil Bringer, he pushed forward and grabbed Adam with a spectral fist. He pulled Adam in instantly, and slammed the flat of the blade into his stomach. The impact caused Red Queen to expel all the energy it was storing in its blade and knocked Adam across the field.

Nero moved in quickly grabbing him with Devil Bringer and smashing him into the ground, before he unloaded another round from Blue Rose into him. Nero wanted to end this immediately, the longer the fight went on the more likely it would be discovered that he didn't posses the invisible shield, that was protecting Adam, causing a whole lot of uncomfortable questions.

"I guess, I passed the test!" Nero holstered Blue Rose, while keeping his eyes on Adam.

Adam was weakened and on the ground still, Nero backed off and waited for him to stand. Adam pushed himself up on shaky knees, he struggled to his feet and pushed his sword back in the sheath. "That was an unexpected turnabout, you kept an ability hidden until the end."

"I don't think you have any room to talk mister laser katana beams, I was lucky I didn't lose my head! It was super impressive though, I will admit that much."

"What was that fist that grabbed me, was it a part of your semblance? I can only assume that the blue energy that forms around you, is all a part of a flexible semblance, able to stretch in forms that the bearer requires. This would explain the ability to fire charged bullets from your gun, the jumping twice in the air and the fist that grabbed me. You can manipulate that energy in order to do anything you wish with it."

"Yup, that's my semblance!" Nero said, who was silently grateful for the out that Adam provided him. He needed to find information about these things, he needed all the intel he could get in order to blend in. The internet might still be a thing, hopefully they have phones but I'll need to find out what they're called in order to gain access to one.

On the bright side, his headphones might be able to connect with their phones allowing to listen to music once more, hopefully they have the kind of music he likes in this place.

"So do I get the job, partners!?" Nero held his hand out to Adam.

"Hmm, your performance was sufficient enough and you seem able to plan strategy while in combat which is a necessity in our work." Adam took a hold of Nero's hand, gripping tightly. "I look forward to our partnership."

"All right! Now on to our first order of business," Nero looked to Adam who frowned in thought.

"That would be?"

"My pay of course!" Nero watched as Adam smirked, a small bit.

"Ha, I believe you may be right." Adam walked away from Nero and went to address the class.

The rest of the evening was spent training the troops and Nero lent a hand to help, after all this was now a joint effort between the two of them.

—-WS—-

**AN: Ok what did everyone think, this was a new method on writing a fight scene and I hope that it was pleasing to read. Me and a buddy of mine, we tried to make it easy to visualize and see the fight play in your heads, while you fill in any details that I may have left out or missed. It's pretty easy to tell that Nero was going to win, and before anyone says that he should have wiped the floor with Adam, remember that Adam is skilled enough to hold his own against Trained Huntsmen but in the end it wasn't enough to best our Devil Hunter because Nero is used to fighting tougher and stronger enemies. The demons he fought back home were tricky creatures and employed the use of strength, tactics and dirty moves all in order to kill humans. Nero had an advantage from the start, especially since he was an unknown, his combat style wasn't known nor abilities meaning Adam had to work with what he could gleam from him. He used Devil Bringer at the end as a sort of Ace up the sleeve meaning it would be a surprise and dirty move, winning the fight for him instantly, since Devil Bringer is able to destroy any demon it comes in contact with, able to throw them around the field and devastate their health and hurt any others nearby.**

**Enough about that, let me know what everyone thought and I'll see everyone again next week. My free time is about to increase, in a small way. However, that means more time in order to type these up and hopefully continue my other stories. Writing this story is helping me overcome my writer's block slowly! I am so pumped to write more of my other stories and I am super grateful for everyone who takes the time to read the story and hopefully I can continue to produce an enjoyable story for everyone!**

**Review answers:**

**StyGian21: Thanks I really tried to write his personality as he was in the game, but I found it too volatile. He would go out of his way to avoid others and have down right mood swings, which was cool when I was 14 however now it feels sort of cringey when you look at it now. I hope that I can do more with the whole Blue Dragon thing, which I may since that is a cool plot point. I am glad that you like it so far. I hope that it continues to be enjoyable! I also thought it was weird how there were no half-Faunus in the show, that would be an amazing thing to cover and add a whole lot more depth to the White Fangs movement. It would show that they weren't not all that different if you are able to create a offspring with the other, showing that they deserved respect in a more meaningful way! I feel like they should hire a new PR person, they honestly can't do their job correctly.**

**SoNNeikO: Huh, I have no clue whatcha talking about summers! XD! (Oh who am I kidding!). You got me, I thought that would be a cool thing to add so I put it in and it helped me form most of the story. However, don't expect anything to be done with that right away. I got a good review reminding me that My pacing needs work. Otherwise, Thanks for the Review and I'm glad you found that little thing enjoyable!**

**Kamencolin: thanks, I like the idea for Adam's character and thought how cool it would be if he was less of a jerk and more believing in the movement and not easily swayed. He didn't trust Cinder at all and he knew more than he let on, I thought he would have betrayed her to be honest.**

**Mrsauce906: I'm glad that you like this Adam, I wanted to change him a bit. I couldn't change everything, he still needs his hatred for humans otherwise Blake wouldn't have left him. He needs to keep his attitude for doing everything for the rest of the Faunus.**

**I like Nero's personality in DMC 5 as well, he felt more focused and driven in his cause. Virgil was a given since it was said that his blade was able to cut throught reality itself or something. I figured that he did a lot of traveling in order to find power. On too the Dante matter, I may or may not but if he does show up it would have to be super dramatic and stylish otherwise he wouldn't be happy.**

**On the idea of a pairing, I do have one in mind and while normally I would be totally forthright with that information. I learned from a friend that putting the pairing up is a good way to gain a big following, but it also cuts out everyone who doesn't want to see a certain pairing. I am going to keep it a secret until it becomes official in the story, once the two get together then I will change the description to include the pairing. I want everyone to read this and offer feedback and give honest thoughts on the entire thing. **

**I'm excited for what I have planned as well!**

**Greer123: Thanks, I'm glad you like it! **

**On the idea of Vergil helping the Faunus, he wasn't really helping them more like they fit along with his goals and he freed them. They had the ability to see in the dark and actual adaptations that help them survive in this world, he would have seen this as wrong and proceeded to set things right, killing the humans is obviously what he would do since it is shown that he gives zero F* about any of them!**

**adislt: Yup, He is! **

**Also thanks for pointing that out, I hope I was able to answer that question as well as fix it, on the matter of attacking Beacon. They aren't there yet and he doesn't have any knowledge about what Adam would be planning. I had to finagle a way for Nero to gain that information. I hope that you keep enjoying the story!**

**lolrus555: ... you my good sir have given me a lot to contemplate and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review. I hope I addressed the punctation things and while I can go back and change things, I have to stick to my guns and continue on, I hope that I can find some way to justify the things I did but I have a plan. I am glad that you liked the idea with Adam and all that, but I have a lot of work ahead of me in that Regard.**

**anonymus01: thanks for pointing that, now I need to finagle something in order to make it work and I will trust me on that! I appreciate the time you put in for your reviews.**

**I thank you for your criticisms and hope that you can bear with any continuity errors I make, since I am going to be trying to make them work in a way somehow, at least.**

**I also like how you actually gave examples for how they were foils for the girls in RWBY, I really smiled when I read all those things!**

**Guest: Glad you like it and no worries, I would never harm a character that I created, unless it was story purposes then RIP. I wouldn't dream of making her a martyr since that would be very effed up.**

**Oni Makai: I hope this was easier to read for you, I tried fixing the blocky paragraphs and broke them up where I could. I hope this helps!**

**Greer123: You are very welcome, I had to make myself write and I am glad that I did.**

**Guest: ??? I dunno what you mean, seriously. I'm glad that you thought the story was already good enough but I hope that whatever I did made it even better, since improving something good can only make it better!**

**Now it is officially Wednesday, 12:23 A.M I have finished Answering reviews and will now be posting it.**


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